How is Chanel’s best-seller doing ?
The J12 is enjoying a new lease on life! Attired in black ceramic when it was launched in 2000, it adopted a striking and specific positioning, but the introduction of white in 2003 revolutionized everything seen on the wrist, and we have kept the flame alive until 2019. Under the guidance of Arnaud Chastaingt, Director of the Watchmaking Creation Studio, we embarked on a special exercise on this icon in pursuit of three objectives: revisiting its design with a sense of humility yet modifying about 70% of the original; making the back and technical content as beautiful as the front; and consolidating our watchmaking quality with this icon. Our participation in the Kenissi movement production company naturally accompanied this transformation of the J12, which has become a watchmaking reference in its own right with regard to its design, components, materials and caliber. A new campaign has revitalized its image, fronted by Chanel’s muses and generating excellent results everywhere, from Japan to the USA. During the second half of 2021, the J12 will write a new chapter, with a 33mm diameter version in white and black and a new 12.2 caliber through its sapphire caseback. It is in the spotlight through a digital campaign involving 12 mini-films highlighting its specificities as a watchmaking icon and the reveal of Margot Robbie as the new face of the advertising campaign.
The J12 Electro stands out against the current rather dreary economic background: is it a gamble or a respond to customer demand?
In all areas of Chanel's activity, its designers keep their fingers firmly on the pulse of society. This Electro project was initiated in 2019 on the musical theme, illustrating the French Touch of the 1990s. We soon realized that this would be a crossover theme with ties to the Boy.Friend, J12, Première and Code Coco lines. It is very unusual creative gesture within the watch industry. We have this freedom. It's not a matter of following a given formula, since design at Chanel is as free as possible, we trust our creatives to have such flashes of inspiration. Timing is also part of the strength of design, and the launch was perfect. It certainly matches what customers want to wear today, reflecting great designers’ ability to be one step ahead of the market. We have concerts and a very ambitious program of events planned in Asia, yet the results of distance selling combined with the W&W show have exceeded our expectations and enabled us to sell almost all of the models in the Electro Haute Horlogerie collection.
Chanel adopted a sapphire case with a very successful limited edition of the Boy.Friend Skeleton X-Ray featuring a size mainly suited to women; would you consider using it for another model?
The Boy.friend is indeed very well suited to this type of exercise. In designing this collection, Arnaud Chastaingt drew inspiration from masculine aesthetic codes applied to the feminine universe. Because of its size, it is mainly aimed at women, but it also holds great appeal for men in certain countries. Let's not forget that at one time, the elegant size for men’s watches was 36.5mm. The idea was to shake up the codes of classic watchmaking with a model that very quickly found its target among Chanel's female customers. In the wake of this, it welcomed the Calibre 3 developed in-house in La Chaux-de-Fonds, while experimenting with new materials. One of the latter is sapphire, with a final result that we are very pleased with and which will undoubtedly lead to further experimentation – particularly for men with the Monsieur, which contains the first in-house caliber made by Chanel. Between our creative freedom and our large investment program in production tools aiming to make Chanel a great watchmaker in the strictest sense of the term, this capacity to develop this type of product with absolute watchmaking excellence opens up a vast field of action.
What is your assessement of the brand’s participation in Watches & Wonders ?
First of all, the project was very ambitious and the entire Watches & Wonders team deserves hearty congratulations. Orchestrating it was a very complex task and we all worked well together, resulting in a digital reality. The positioning of each brand and their respective managements were faithfully reflected in their presentations. Chanel was keen to showcase its designers, as we considered that this format lends itself better to inspiring dreams than to presenting our products in great detail. There are certainly many lessons to be learned from what we have just achieved, but to be honest we are all looking forward to 2022 and a physical show. One of the great pleasures is exploring the booths and getting out and about to meet people. I'm looking forward to a physical show in Geneva with all the major players in the Swiss watch industry. It is essential to have a unity of place, time and action.
The Chanel brand is a dream for all generations around the world; what more could you wish your watches?
Our ambition is to make time look good. It started in a very unusual way. For its first watch in 1987, the Maison decided to open a boutique on Rue Montaigne, a move that was met with a lot of bemused smiles yet said a lot about its desire to be a lasting stakeholder in this field. That is indeed essential if one wants to be taken seriously in this field.
The big difference in recent years has been the acceleration in watchmaking know-how, the integration of our ceramic know-how, and our long-term production independence. It is important to have this base of technical excellence at the service of creation. Today Chanel simultaneously offers a J12 X-Ray Electro with an in-house caliber and a sapphire case demonstrating incredible mastery; a self-winding J12 in 38 and 33mm versions with an absolutely perfect Kenissi movement; as well as another artistic craft model a Mademoiselle Privé Bouton timepiece embroidered by the house of Lesage, which is already sold out. This unity of creation, ranging from the highly technical to the fashionable, has enabled us to maintain the dreamy aspect of our creations, but also to obtain six distinctions at Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève This represents a great deal of work and investment, and we remain extremely humble yet confident.
Are you seeing a change in the respective proportions of watch purchases made by men and women?
Indeed, and not only on unisex products such as the J12. We are already witnessing 20% of sales to men in markets like Japan, along with strong growth in others like the US. But men in some parts of the world are also deliberately choosing to adopt models such as the Boy.Friend. Is this size enjoying a comeback as a factor in masculine elegance?
What one-of-a-kind model are you working on for Only Watch 2021?
Perhaps one should say models! We have been involved from the very beginning and put a lot of desire and passion into the timepieces created for Only Watch. It's great to see how the watchmaking world has been united by this cause.
